Some editors support editing files that contain files within them. As an example, suppose a Microsoft WORD file (a container object) contains an EXCEL file (a server object) within it. If a user wishes to edit the EXCEL file from within the WORD file, he or she may be able to do so by double-clicking on the EXCEL object within the WORD file. Because EXCEL and WORD require running different executables, a new instance of an EXCEL application may be launched in order to edit the EXCEL object within the WORD file. Such an operation is called “in-place activation”. In-place activation typically requires the implementation of a number of interfaces (e.g., in the case of the WORD/EXCEL example described above, these interfaces are implemented using OLE technology).
Additionally, in-place activation typically requires the server object and the container object to be executables in order to enable the direct WYSIWYG (“What You See Is What You Get”) editing of the server object from within the container object. Because two different executables are involved, it follows that changes that are made to the EXCEL document, such as changing the font, will not be applied to the WORD document, and similarly, changes made to the WORD document will not be applied to the EXCEL document. Hence, it is not possible to edit the EXCEL object “within the context” of the WORD document.
There are times when it would be helpful to be able to edit a component from within the context of the containing or hosting file, so that changes made to the hosting file would be automatically reflected within the component. It would similarly be helpful to be able to directly edit a component that is not necessarily an executable. It would be helpful if such a task could be implemented without the establishment of a number of highly specific interfaces so that a generic architecture could be accommodated. Furthermore, it would be helpful to find a way to accomplish this task in such a way that the user is intuitively aware of the context in which the element is being edited. This concept is referred to herein as “in-context editing”.